The New Heroes of Olympus - Book 1
by jacksones8864
Summary: This story takes place about two years after the Heroes of Olympus story line. ToA never happened. There have been no major skirmishes or battles since the Giants invaded and the Demigod world thinks that there finally might be peace but when a new threat arises it takes some certain people to save Camp Half-Blood and the rest of the Demigod society. Reviews are appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **John's POV**

John leaned against the cold brick wall and breathed a shaky breath. It was the middle of the day and John felt as if the sun was baking him alive. He breathed again and clutched the hot dog he had just stolen to his heart. "Finally," John muttered, " a decent meal." For John had not eaten in two days.

If you have not guessed it already, John was an orphan. He lived in Manhattan in a back alleyway near Central Park. John bit into his hot dog. It tasted delicious, like every hot dog should. As he ate John thought about where he would sleep tonight. Yesterday it had been a sewer. Before that a cardboard box. John was tired of sleeping in odd places as he had been doing so for over seven years, ever since his mom had mysteriously disappeared.

John thought back to that time, when he was six years old. His mother had just left to go out for a while and had left him in the care of Laura, his elderly babysitter. Yes, John remembered his mother well. Dark hair, blue eyes, just like himself, although he thought the combination of the two was kind of strange. Anyway, long after John's mother was supposed to arrive home again, Laura had made a chain of hasty phone calls. She never located John's mother, but she did find out that his mother had never arrived in her initial destination. With nothing else to do, Laura took John to an orphanage. It was a nice place but there was one problem. It was crowded. Just imagine how many orphans would be in one of the busiest places on earth. John, liking the freedom of space, decided to leave, so one night he silently crept out a window onto the dew covered grass and simply walked away.

John had lived on the streets ever since. Surviving on scraps of food, at least he thinks it's food, from garbage cans and occasionally resorted to stealing when necessary, like if the baker had no burnt bread or if the butcher had no spoiled meat, but a strange feeling inside of him told him today would be different. John had no idea how right he was.

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

John walked along Fifth Avenue as he finished up the last of his hot dog. He sat down on the curb and watched the cars zoom by. It reminded him of a game that he used to play with his mom, before she disappeared, he refused to accept the fact that she might have left him. They would sit on the curb in front of their apartment for exactly an hour, they used a timer, and each would chose a different color of car. John would always chose green and his mother, red. Then they would count the number of cars that would pass by and whoever counted more cars wins! John knew that it sounded boring but it was fun at the time. He decided to play it by himself, just for old times sake. Suddenly John heard a deep growl coming from behind him. He stood up and turned around.

John had dealt with stray dogs before, but nothing could prepare him for what he saw. Before him stood a gigantic, black mastiff, foaming at the mouth. The dog was at least four feet tall at the shoulders and looked as if it had not eaten in a week. John knew from experience not to stare into a dog's eyes, so he looked at the ground and started to slowly walk away. He could tell it was still following him from the sound of its nails clicking against the sidewalk. John suddenly broke into a run. He knew it was stupid, dogs being able to outrun humans and all, but this dog gave him seriously bad vibes. John ran as if he had never run in his life. He heard the sound of clicking nails getting farther and farther away. Had he actually outrun the beast?

John slowed his pace and turned around. Nothing but a few pedestrians and a fruit vendor. He turned back around and walked a few paces before hearing more growling. _Why me?_ John thought as two more mastiffs stepped out of an alleyway in front of him. He turned around to run but another dog blocked his path. This time he got a good look at its eyes. They were pure red with no pupils and seemed to just radiate evil. John spun around again and lunged through the doors of the abandoned workshop to his right. He ran past crates and shelves, all completely covered in a thin layer of dust, and hid behind a box near the back of the room. He heard the front doors swing open and shut by the sound of the bell above them and then that sound of clicking nails that was really starting to get on his nerves.

After listening to a few moments of clicking, John peeked over the top of his box. He saw one of the dogs standing near the doors. Guarding the entrance he presumed. The second dog was sniffing the crates near the front of the workshop. But where was the third? His breath quickened. John then heard that annoying _click click click_ sound of a dog behind him. Without even looking, John jumped up and dashed towards the stairs on his right, the dog following close behind. He rushed through the upstairs rooms, filled with cobweb-covered desks and chairs, and found himself on a terrace about thirty feet from the bustling sidewalk below. _Well,_ John thought to himself, _Might as well make my last stand here as anywhere._ The dogs, all three of them were here now, skidded to a stop in front of the wide open terrace doors and slowly advanced, closing in around him and leaving no room for escape. "Nice doggies..." John whispered meekly. The dogs pounced.

John had hoped that the ancient railings surrounding the perimeter of the terrace would save him, but no such luck. He and the dogs crashed right through them and fell towards the sidewalk below.

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

Now John was really confused. He had been chased by giant demon dogs, then he fell off a terrace, and finally he had been saved by a horse that seemed to have wings. _It could have been worse,_ he thought, _I'm unhurt (except for a few bumps) and this horse-thing seems to be nice._ The horse flew higher and John got his first good bird's-eye-view look of the city. "Wow," he said in amazement. "It's never looked this big before!" The horse, who John had decided to name Tom, snorted as he flew over the buildings and skyscrapers of Manhattan. John felt as if he could see everything from up there. And in a way he could, since he had never even stepped a foot out of Manhattan before. Tom swerved to face the Atlantic Ocean making a beeline for Long Island Sound. "So that's where we're heading, 'ey boy?" John asked the horse, not expecting an answer. And of course he didn't get one.

As they approached the island, Tom took a steep dive towards the water. "YA-HOO!" John yelled into the wind as it blew across his face, making his long shaggy hair go crazy. Suddenly Tom pulled up again and his hooves skimmed the tops of the waves. When John looked into the water he thought he saw women swimming alongside them in the waves. John hit the side of his head with the palm of his hand and the women were gone. _Just seeing things,_ he thought to himself, _I've had a long day._

Tom was flying closer to the island when suddenly... SPLASH! The horse had stopped, throwing John off its back and into the water below. "Tom, wait!" John yelled at the horse but Tom was already miles above, circling overhead. "What a lot of help you were," John muttered coldly as he paddled towards the shore.

John thought that he was done for. He had run out of strength and he was only halfway to Long Island. He had never really bothered to get into swimming and now he regretted it terribly. Just as John was about to sink down to the depths of the ocean from exhaustion, five beautiful women rose from the waters, each grabbing a limb and the last one, supporting his head above the water so he wouldn't drown. They started to paddle him to the shore where he could see the tiny outlines of people and smoke rise into the clouds from a fire somewhere on the island. John didn't remember much about the trip. Mostly because he had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **Daniel's POV**

Daniel was having a bad day. First, one of the pegasi had a little accident all over his new pair of Reeboks, then he had tripped over a loose tile in the dining area, spilling his food all over the elaborately tiled floor. Usually Daniel was quite nimble-footed, but not today apparently.

Now Daniel stood on Half-Blood Hill, leaning on Thalia's tree, and looked out over Camp Half-Blood. He could see the strawberry fields way back by the woods where the satyrs were playing on their magical reed pipes that made the plants go crazy. Daniel loved satyrs. They appeared to be human from the waist up, except for small horns growing out of their head, but the satyr's legs were covered in the thick curly hair that covered their heads followed by cloven hooves for feet, similar to the legs of a mountain goat.

Daniel then lowered his gaze to the large ring of cabins on the west side of the valley. Each cabin represented a god. Not a capital "G" god, but an ancient Greek god. It may be hard to imagine but the Greek gods did exist. The ancient Greeks weren't stupid, you know. And what did the gods do in ancient Greece? They went around mingling with mortals and bearing forth kids, half mortal, half god. They were known as Demigods, or Half-Bloods. Daniel focused in on the Apollo cabin. Its gold outside gleaned in the sunlight. He watched his half-siblings playing basketball behind the cabin.

Yes, the Apollo cabin was his cabin and he was the son of Apollo, the god of music, poetry, and the sun. Daniel had never actually met his dad, but one day he hoped to. If your part god, you may be asking, does that mean that you get to look all big and buff and godly? Unfortunately, no. Daniel was rather skinny. He had blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, and short blondish hair. He did receive one trait from his dad however, and that was archery. Daniel was great at archery.

"Hey!" said a voice from behind him.

Daniel whirled around. "Oh, hi Clara." Daniel replied. Clara was another one of Daniel's half-siblings. They had the same father, Apollo, but different mortal mothers. She had light brown hair, brown eyes, a relatively light complexion, and kind of a strange personality. Sometimes she could be extremely chatty, but sometimes she would become more somber and not talk at all. Right now Clara was in chatty mode.

"So what do you think of Connor and Katie?" That was totally like her. Gossip all around.

"Umm..." Daniel didn't really know what to say, never really being the gossipy type.

Clara didn't wait for an answer. "Hey, isn't it your birthday tomorrow? Sweet sixteen, right? Are you excited?"

"Oh, right." Daniel had completely forgotten about his birthday in all of the confusion of today. "Yeah, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I mean... yeah! Awesome! Well I'm going to go now! Bye!"

And with that Daniel jogged down the hill towards the combat arena, leaving a dumbfounded Clara behind.

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

The fighting arena was small. Just a walled-in circle with a sand floor. There was a row of training dummies on one end of the arena and some targets for archery practice. That was where Daniel was heading now, over to the targets. Archery had always helped calm him down, even before he realized that he was the son of Apollo. Before he came to Camp Half-Blood, Daniel had been in a ton of archery school tournaments and even some state tournaments too.

Daniel grabbed his favorite bow, a mixture of mahogany and celestial bronze, and a quiver of celestial bronze tipped arrows off the rack of bows before entering the arena. When he entered he saw his best friend Jackson Ridder over by the dummies, hacking away at them with his favorite sword, Apergos, which simply meant "Striker" in Greek.

"Hey, Jackson!" Daniel yelled. No response.

He tried again. "JACKSON!"

"Huh? What?" Jackson turned around. He had dark hair, kind-of a blackish-brown color. His skin was also tanned from all the time he spent outside training or in the forge, him being a son of Hephaestus. "Oh, hi Daniel. I guess I didn't hear you there. Too busy training against those dummies."

"Yeah, I could tell. How about you face a more worthy opponent." Daniel said, gesturing to himself. He had always been a decent sword fighter, but his skills with a sword went nowhere close to his skills with a bow.

Jackson glanced around. "I don't see a worthy opponent," he said with a faint smile.

Daniel pushed Jackson's stomach a bit less gently than he should have.

"Ow!" Jackson exclaimed, then laughed. "Fine. All right, I'll sword-fight you, but don't expect me to go easy on you!"

Jackson handed Daniel one of the wooden training swords from the weapons rack and replaced his own with a wooden one too. They circled each other for a few moments, but then Daniel lunged, his blade aiming for Jackson's chest. Jackson blocked the sword and the fight was on. Jackson went for a blow to the legs. Daniel nimbly leaped out of the way.

"You're going to have to try harder than that!" Daniel yelled as he scampered across the arena.

Jackson chased him but at the last second Daniel sidestepped and swung his sword. Jackson blocked it again and instead tried to back Daniel up against the wall. Daniel leaped up onto the weapons rack, balancing precariously.

"Come at me, bro, or are you chicken?" Daniel teased.

Jackson rushed forwards. Daniel jumped up and used the wall to propel himself towards Jackson. Jackson was expecting that and dropped to the ground. With nothing in his path, Daniel flew over Jackson, crashed into one of the archery targets and fell down to the sandy ground. Jackson put the wooden sword to Daniel's throat.

"You, my friend, are dead." Jackson said, but then took his sword away and reached out his hand. Daniel took it and Jackson pulled him up.

Just then the horn sounded that alerted everyone for dinner.

"You know," Daniel began. "Let's go from something you're better at to something _I'm_ better at."

"What do you mean?" Jackson asked.

"Race you to the dining pavilion!" shouted Daniel as he started sprinting in that direction.

* * *

 _-==_ {o}==-

* * *

 _Thump thump thump thump._

The sound of pounding feet rang through their ears. _Breathe in, breathe out._ They ran through the ring of cabins in the center of the valley, dodging past kids and jumping over various obstacles. _Breathe in, breathe out._ They ran up towards the dining pavilion. _Breathe in, breathe out._ Up the steps. Over the crack in the elaborately decorated tiled floor of the pavilion, made by a certain child of Hades.

"And Daniel is victorious once again!" shouted Daniel as he leaned up against one of the stone pillars surrounding the pavilion. Daniel never really understood what the point of them were, the dining area having no roof and all. He guessed it was just for decor, to made it feel more Greek or something.

Jackson came panting up to him. "Uhhh..." he groaned in between breaths. "Why... do we... have to run so far?"

"It wasn't even that far." Daniel smiled. Although he tried his best to hide it, he was also tired, but he couldn't look weak in front of his best friend right? "Anyway, let's get some grub."

"Sounds like a splendid idea."

Jackson walked away, over to the Hephaestus table where the rest of his siblings were chowing down on every assortment of meats. Daniel passed by the Hades table, then turned around, noticing something.

"Will, shouldn't you be over at our table?" Daniel asked his half-brother, Will Solace.

"Uh, well, I was just kinda talking to Nico here. Is that not okay? Chiron hasn't said anything..."

Daniel glanced over at the head table, at one end of the pavilion. Chiron was looking his way, and winked. Even he had noticed that Will had been spending an awful lot of time around Nico.

Daniel looked back over at Will and Nico. Will was giving Daniel a look that was awfully close to puppy-dog eyes.

"Well, I guess it's okay. See you!" Daniel said. Then he walked over to his table to eat.

Near the end of the hour, when most of the campers had finished their meal, Chiron gave a troubling announcement. He stood up and clinked his never-ending goblet with his spoon, very noble, until everyone had quieted down.

"There has been news of a new threat rising. The gods have heard that there had been a great stirring of the mist over by Mount Othrys, or its more common name, Mount Tamalpais."

Shouts of "I thought we would finally get a break!" rang out of the camper's mouths and the talking and shouting commenced again.

"SILENCE!" Chiron roared. "Let me continue. Thank you. Now, gods have asked us to send a few demigods to check things out over there. They say it is probably a false alarm, sometimes the mist just likes to act up, who knows why, but we have to check, just in case. I have already picked a couple of half-bloods to undertake this quest. Could Daniel Summers, the son of Apollo, please step forwards."

Daniel's heart picked up its pace as he stood up and began to walk slowly towards the head table.

"Good job, Dylan." said Dionysus, the head of the camp, as Daniel walked behind the head table to stand behind Chiron.

"We have chosen Daniel for his heroic actions during both the Titan War in Manhattan and the Battle against Camp Jupiter here at our camp. We have also chosen him because of his skill with a bow, which will come in handy during his quest." Chiron announced. "And for our second hero, we have Jackson Ridder, who also showed heroism and bravery at both of the battles I mentioned earlier, and for his skill with a blade."

Clapping arose at the Hephaestus table as Jackson stood up and came over next to Daniel.

"You know," he began. "I'm kinda excited! This would be my first real quest and I hope we find some real monsters to go along with it.

"Suit yourself." Daniel whispered back. "I'd rather just stay here and train than risk my life out in the wild, especially over in San Francisco. They say that there are monsters everywhere you look down there and I'd rather not see for myself whether that's true or not."

Jackson looked like he was about to come up with a clever comeback but he was interrupted by a dryad, arriving from the direction of the forest.

"Sir, sorry to bother you, but the naiads just pulled a boy out of the sea. They think he might be a demigod!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **Jackson's POV**

Jackson and Daniel followed the dryad through the forest, towards the fireworks beach. Chiron had decided that as a training exercise, both of them had to go investigate the dryad's claim of a new half-blood just appearing in the arms of a few naiads.

Speaking of Chiron, Jackson really had been honored that he had chosen them to investigate the mountain, instead of calling in some pros, like the legendary Percy Jackson and his almost-as-legendary girlfriend Annabeth Chase, but he thought that the real reason Chiron had sent them to investigate the beach was so that he would have to answer any questions about the real quest that either Jackson or Daniel might have, the lazy horse.

They ran alongside the river that usually marked the boundary line when they played capture-the-flag. Jackson thought himself pretty good at that game. He could beat almost everyone at camp at a sword fight, except Percy himself, probably, Jackson had never challenged him. That made him a valuable player. People said that his skill came from his name, which was Percy's last name, but Jackson assumed that it was just from practice, he spent almost all his free time (and some of his not-so-free time, _shhh..._ ) training in the arena, and a bit of natural talent. The way most people took him down in CTF was when they would either sneak-attack him, or hit him with with a long range weapon, like a bow or a spear.

Daniel interrupted his thinking with a question to the nymph. "Did you actually _see_ this so called demigod?" Jackson could tell Daniel didn't believe her either.

"No, but we can trust the naiads. They don't lie." she replied. _Yeah,_ Jackson thought sarcastically. _Only when they want to entangle a cute demigod guy for a kiss, or when they need someone to help them with a hangnail or something._

Finally, after a lot more tripping through the forest, they arrived on the fireworks beach.

"Just this way!" the dryad told them as she nimbly ran towards a cove of rocks by the sea.

Before they had even arrived, they heard a voice.

"Calm down ladies," the voice said in a drunk kind of way. "There is enough of Johnny-boy for everyone. Just then the pair of demigods reached the cove and looked over the rocks. There they saw a boy, he was smallish and looked very wet and dirty with long dark hair that went in all directions, with naiads laying all around and over him, kissing him wherever they had the room, and giggling. So the dryad hadn't been lying after all.

"Scram ladies!" yelled Jackson down on the naiads as he stood on one the rocks. "This boy is ours!"

The naiads jumped back into the water, doing all sorts of tricks as they went, giving Jackson dirty looks and the boy, longing ones.

The dirty rat of a boy glanced up at them. "Aww. Come on guys. I was having fun! Anyway, I'm straight so you better not be thinking of anything."

"What? No! We're here to take you to a place where you'll be safe!" Daniel replied. "Anyway, what's your name? I'm Daniel Summers and this is my buddy, Jackson Ridder."

"I'm John..." The boy looked like he couldn't remember his last name, like he hadn't used it in a while. "Bowey! That's it, Bowey! I'm John Bowey." he finished rather excitably.

"Well John Bowey, let's get you to camp."

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

"Guys, seriously, where the *insert cuss word here* are we going?! Please tell me it's not another foster home. I'm doing fine on my own!"

This John character was definitely not in his right mind, or maybe that's what he was always like, Jackson didn't know. He had been swearing like a sailor and just rambling about things that made no sense. He had mentioned everything between penguins and radiators, stuffed animals and nuclear missiles, all without any meaning. They had been able to pry some information about his past, like the fact that he was a street orphan for seven years, or that he hated both him and Daniel, but Jackson was getting seriously annoyed.

"Will you just shut up?"

"Nah. I don't really feel like it." John responded innocently.

"Something is definitely wrong with this boy." Even Daniel had noticed. "I vote we take him to the healers at my cabin and see if they can fix him up."

"I think we should take him to Chiron." responded Jackson. "Chiron should know that there is a new camper first, but then right to the Apollo cabin."

"Sure, sounds good."

They walked the rest of the way to the Big House in silence, well, except for John. He was still rambling about nothing in particular, but no one was listening.

When they arrived Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair listening to his awful '40s music.

"Chiron, please!" said Daniel, hoping that Chiron would turn off the horrible moaning that he called music, it kind of sounded like that Demigod a few months ago who had been burned beyond recognition.

"Fine." Chiron turned his music off. "Although I don't see how you young heroes don't enjoy listening to the classics! What do you need, Daniel, Jackson, boy that I do not recognize."

"Umm, apparently that dryad was telling the truth. We found this boy, John Bowey, out by the beach with the naiads. He looks like he's drunk."

As if to prove Daniel's point John got down started to do the worn across the floor, with no music whatsoever so it just looked like he was entering a death spasm.

"Something is very much wrong with this young hero. I suspect that the naiads put an enchantment on him to seduce him, making it easier for him to become their plaything. The Apollo cabin healers should be able to fix this up quickly. Bring him to them."

And with that Chiron turned on his music again.

Just as Jackson was walking out the door he remembered something. "Chiron!"

"Yes, child?" Chiron yelled above the music that was blaring out of the radio that looked like it could have been made in the same year as the song itself.

"When exactly are we leaving for this quest of ours?"

"Whenever you feel like it really, but make sure that it is before..." He thought for a second. "Next Friday. I do not want you taking too long!"

Next Friday was in four days so that was plenty of time for them to get ready, but first step was getting this crazy boy to the healers.

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

Jackson had never understood the Apollo cabin. Its gold outside reflected the light like crazy, blinding anyone who looked in that direction, and even on the inside it was bright! It wasn't like the firelight that was so much better. It was like sunlight, blinding and bright. The inside of the cabin wasn't much better, but it still had its flaws. Almost everything in the room was a light color, mostly yellow and white, and let's not mention the music that the Apollo kids seemed to be obsessed with. Despite these things, Daniel seemed perfectly at home is this environment. He apparently liked it loud and bright.

The Apollo kids had taken John straight to the part of the cabin that was saved for medical purposes. There was a little bed that jut out of the wall and behind it, in an indent in the wall, was a bunch of bottles that contained different medicines and pills. Jackson noticed that it was kinda like one of those diaper-changing stations in bathrooms.

John was thrashing around on the bed and it took both Daniel and Jackson to hold him down. Jackson tried to order John to calm down but to no success. He really felt like he needed to stab the boy, but the medic working on John wouldn't allow that. He said it would 'make him harder to operate on.' Soon, after the medic had injected him with some sort of needle, John calmed down and went into a kind of paralyzed state, so the medic told Jackson and Daniel to go wait outside. It _was_ getting quite cramped in there. They obeyed and went to sit on the small front porch of the cabin.

"Jackson?" Daniel opened the conversation. Jackson really hoped that Daniel wasn't going to talk about that boy. He didn't want to acknowledge his existence just yet. Luckily that wasn't what Daniel wanted to talk about. "So, did you hear the news?"

"Uhh... About what exactly?" Jackson didn't remember hearing any important news about anything recently. Except their quest, of course, but Daniel knew that Jackson already knew about that.

"About me!" Daniel gestured to himself with a wide grin on his face.

"I don't think so." Did Daniel get injured or something? Or maybe he won an award? Jackson didn't know.

"Just today Will Solace gave me his role as the counselor of Cabin 7! He said that he wanted to be more 'out and about' and not be bound by the duty of being a counselor, but we all know that he just wants to spend more time with Nico." Daniel smiled.

"Congratulations for the counselor position, although you are _way_ too irresponsible." Jackson smirked but then his talking went on a completely different course. "Nico and Will, they're a cute couple. I hope that they actually get together someday." He had also noticed that Will had been spending a lot of his time with the son of Hades.

Daniel smile grew into a mischievous grin. "Yeah. That's what everyone else thinks of you and Clara." He quoted Jackson's words. "I hope that they actually get together someday."

"Hey! I don't like her in _that_ way. Just... She's cool, okay!" Jackson was frowning in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, but the truth was, he did kind of like Daniel's half-sister, although he didn't know if was it actual _love_ or just some passing attraction.

"If you say so." Daniel was trying, but failing, to hide his smirk.

"Ugh! Daniel, you are so impossible!"

"Well man, I'm going to go start packing for our little quest thing."

"Already dude? We leave in like four days."

"Better to be early than late." Jackson said as he got up and began to walk away. "See you in the morning."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **John's POV**

John woke up in confusion. He could remember nothing passed the moment where he fell asleep in the water, in the arms of those women. He opened his eyes and was almost blinded. The _light_ in this place was intense. It almost made John's eyes water. When his eyes got used to the light, John jumped up. Where was he? He looked around. It seemed he was in some kind of small building. People ran around in a hurry, grabbing stuff from various surfaces. One guy picked up... Was that a _sword_? No one even acknowledged that he had got up, kind of like he didn't exist. Well, John was just fine with that. He was used to being ignored on the streets. How could he even have gotten here anyway? Maybe those water-women brought him here? Just then John heard a voice behind him.

"Hey! Your awake!"

John turned to face the smiling young blond haired guy who was dressed like a doctor. John didn't know what to think of him but decided to ask some important questions. "Who are you? And where am I?"

"How about you tell me who you are first?" The boy's smile grew.

"Umm... No. I asked you first. What tells me that I can trust you?" It came out a lot more rude than John had anticipated but it was a necessary question.

The boy's smile never wavered. It looked almost like one of those ever-grinning life sized dolls that you see in shop windows. They had always freaked John out. The boy answered John's question though, which he appreciated.

"Fine. Have it your way. I'm Will Solace. Former counselor of cabin 7, which is where you are now. I'm also the son of Apollo. Now, who are you?" The boy, Will, said this with his regular smile, which led John to believe that he wasn't lying. But what did he mean, son of Apollo? Wasn't that one of those Greek god thingies?

John asked another question. "Cabin 7 of what? An what do you mean 'Apollo?'"

"Well, I'll explain everything to you once you tell me who you are." Jeez, this Will person was starting to get on John's nerves.

John decided to lie. "I'm Bob. Bob Smith."

Will wasn't fooled. "Bob Smith? What kind of alias is that? Please tell me the truth."

Apparently this guy had seen through John's lie. This time he decided to tell the truth. What could Will do to him anyway? He just looked like a harmless doctor. "I'm John Bowey. Orphan. Got carried here on a flying horse and some water-women." John thought that Will wouldn't believe him anyway. Who would? His story was unbelievable, but Will looked like he wasn't surprised at all.

"Thank you, John. Now you want to know what's going on here? Well, ever heard of the Greek gods? And all of those other Greek myths?"

John nodded. He had heard of them, but what did they have to do with these circumstances? He had no idea what Will was going to say next but he definitely didn't expect what he did say.

"They're true."

"What now?" This guy was surely pulling on his leg.

"I'm telling you, they're true. That flying horse that you saw? That's a pegasus. Those women in the water? Naiads. You're living in a world of myths! And you are part of it."

"How do you know that?" Surprisingly enough, John believed this complete stranger. The stuff about the Greek myths being real? That actually made sense! John had seen so many weird stuff happen that he couldn't explain. He had seen small groups of tall people walking down the sidewalk and when John looked at their face, he could only see a single eye. Or what about those dogs from earlier? They definitely couldn't be explained any way else.

Will answered John's question. "Well, since you managed to pass through the magical border-"

"You guys have magic?" John was in awe.

"Of course! We use it for all sorts of stuff! It's very useful."

"I'm sure, but seriously, what is this place?" John decided to ask the question that had been bothering him the most.

"This place is a camp for people like you."

"People like me?" John didn't know exactly what he meant. "Like... As in orphans?"

"No, no, no." Will shook his head. "People like Demigods!"

John had no idea what a 'Demigod' was. "Umm... Should I know what that is?"

"No, I suppose not. It's a child of the gods."

"But how does that work? I had a perfectly normal mother..." John trailed off in thoughts of his mom.

"Sorry. I mean only _one_ of your parents is a god. The other one is a mortal so that must be your mom. Your other parent must have been some god. Probably a minor one, since you've been living on the streets so long and are still alive."

"So that makes me...?"

"A Demigod! Now let's get you some chow. You look hungry."

Will was right. John hadn't eaten anything but that hot dog all day. He thought it was time for him to get a decent meal even though he still had some questions. Well, all in good time, right? John would ask Will during their meal.

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

 **Jackson's POV - The Next Morning**

Surprisingly, Jackson had a dreamless night which was pretty rare in the demigod community, but it was rudely interrupted by the alarm clock on his nightstand. Jackson sat up drowsily. _Ughh... Did I really leave my alarm on AGAIN!_ He thought. He had meant to turn it off because he had no early morning classes today and wanted to sleep in, especially after a long night of packing essentials. Surprisingly, the Hephaestus cabin was empty. It seemed that all of his siblings had something else to do, probably in the forges. Jackson turned off his clock, stood up, stretched, and prepared for another long day of training. It was more important then ever to keep in shape since he was leaving on his first quest soon.

As he got dressed, he wondered what it would be like. Would there be monsters around every corner, like in all of Percy Jackson's adventures, or would it be a long, uneventful plane ride to Mt. Tamalpais and back. Jackson was kinda hoping for the first option. There hadn't really been that many quests being offered lately, or at least not as much as there had been during the Titan and Giant wars. Both the monsters and the gods had started to quiet down more. Mind you, they weren't gone completely. There was still the occasional visit from either, but still, not as much as there used to be and it was never anything major.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Jackson managed to say through a mouth full of toothpaste.

Jackson heard the door open and was surprised to see Will Solace of the Apollo cabin standing just outside. That kid that the Naiads had brought in yesterday stood next to him. John Bowey, Jackson remembered.

"Hey Jackson, bad timing?" Will said when he noticed Jackson in the bathroom.

"Nah." Jackson put down the toothbrush and spit all of the toothpaste into the sink. After gargling a handful of water, he went and stood in front of Will. "How are you, Will? John?"

John didn't say anything and Will just smiled. "I'm good. I was just wondering if you would like to show John around camp. The basics, you know? Maybe teach him a bit of swordplay."

"Does he know about..." Jackson gestured to everything around him.

John finally spoke. "Yeah, Will told me about all of the Greek Gods and stuff. It's crazy! I'm still not sure if I believe it."

"Well you better get used to it kid." Jackson smiled. "You're living in a world of myths. Let's go."

Just as Jackson and John were about to leave, Will touched Jackson's shoulder and whispered to him. "Try and find out who his godly parent is okay? We've still no idea, except that it's his dad."

"Sure thing Will. See you later."

* * *

-=={o}==-

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Jackson had just finished giving John the tour. As far as Jackson knew, John had seemed to enjoy it. He was taking the news of being a demigod pretty well, although it was kinda hard to tell with John. He seemed a little shy and well... Wimpy. He hadn't wanted to try much of anything when Jackson offered and made up lame excuses when asked why. Not the climbing wall, or the pegasi, or even the canoeing. Jackson couldn't really blame him though. He had just learned that his missing father was actually a 3,000 year old magical god. And speaking of gods, Jackson still had no idea who John's godly parent was.

Now they stood in front of the arena, Jackson's favorite part of camp. " Uh... It was okay." John still seemed nervous in his new environment.

Jackson grinned. "Just okay? I would have said it was pretty amazing!"

"Well, okay. Yeah, I guess it was pretty amazing." John admitted.

"There we go! That's the spirit. Now how about we go into the arena, you'll love it!"

"Well, umm..." John would have finished his sentence with a "maybe next time," but Jackson had grabbed his arm and started gently leading him into the arena, forcing John to follow.

The arena was empty, just as Jackson had hoped. It gave them more privacy and he thought John would be more likely to preform well with less distraction from an audience. He led John towards the sword fighting part of the arena, then gestured to the rack of swords. "Well, John, which one do you want?"

He picked up a celestial bronze sword from the rack. Medium length. "Like to keep?" John seemed surprised.

"Of course!" Jackson explained. "You're a demigod! How do you think you have to defend yourself from all of the monsters?"

"You know, I've been surviving well enough without a weapon so..."

Jackson cut him off. "Okay, what you first want to do is stand about three feet in front of me."

John obeyed, but still looked like he didn't want to be doing this.

"Good. Now spread you're legs a bit further apart. Yes. That's it! Hold your sword up in front of your chest..." And the lesson began.


End file.
